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Weekly Report from the Board Meeting at Holman Prison 6.28.17

posted by PHADP
on Wed, 06/28/2017 - 11:37

Weekly Report from the Board Meeting at Holman Prison 6.28.17

We quote from an article in the Atlantic “The U.S. Supreme Court’s latest term, which ended this week as the justices began their summer recess, saw death-penalty opponents achieve some notable victories even as the Court moved further away from abolishing capital punishment.” And although we welcome the “notable victories” the reality that the Court moved further away from abolishing the death penalty is the bottom line.

Not too surprisingly many of us are concerned and are wondering what is next here in Alabama. The refusal by the Alabama Supreme Court to review the appeal of Ronnie Kirksey is an indication of what lies ahead. The U.S. Supreme Court had vacated the sentence of Kirksey and others in light of the Hurst Florida ruling. Unfortunately for us the judicial override bill passed in Alabama is not retroactive and so the death sentence for Kirksey as well as for others remain constitutional. In another ruling the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday vacated a state appeals court judgment in the case of death row inmate ToForest O. Johnson. In a split decision, the U.S. Supreme Court vacated the judgment and sent the case back for further consideration.

There appears to be a silver lining detailed in the article in the Anniston Star “Alabama’s Execution Drugs May be Close to Expiring” and we quote: “A number of factors — the pace of executions, new information about the state’s last purchase of the drugs and the shelf life of the state’s drugs — suggest that Alabama could be out of drugs in about a year, if it isn’t already. Any estimate of the timetable requires guesswork, though, because the Alabama prison officials have been secretive about when and where they get the drugs used in executions.”

Let us hope so and let us also hope that Alabama does not turn to illegal sources as it did at least once before when purchasing drugs on the black market which then ended up being confiscated by the DEA. One wonders whether there shouldn’t have been a penalty for this illegal purchase but are not too surprised that there wasn’t.

The annual Fourth of July tournaments are in full swing at Holman. May the best men win and may those who don’t enjoy it anyway!